Created by the public interest law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal in Washington, D.C.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Effort to Save Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Launched

On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) and
the Maricopa Audubon Society we have provided formal notice of Endangered Species
Act violations in connection with federal agency actions harming the
Southwestern willow flycatcher, a highly endangered bird in Arizona and other
southwestern states. Because of the ongoing destruction of the
flycatcher’s native riparian willow habitat, the species has been forced to
adapt in many locations to living in tamarisk, an exotic plant that frequently
occupies degraded riparian habitats in the southwestern U.S. Beginning in
the late 1990s, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – an agency
within the Department of Agriculture – began to permit and otherwise facilitate
the release of tamarisk-eating beetles – another non-native species on the
theory that this would help to eradicate tamarisk. Grave concerns were
raised by the Fish and Wildlife Service, CBD, and others that this program
could do serious harm to the flycatcher unless steps were taken to ensure that
any impact on flycatcher habitat would be mitigated by strenuous efforts to
restore native willow vegetation in locations where tamarisk might be
destroyed. However, APHIS assured the Service and others that the
particular species of beetle being released would not be able to survive in the
latitudes where flycatchers exist and, on that basis, the release program was
allowed to proceed. Soon thereafter, APHIS’s prediction proved false, and
the beetle is now decimating flycatcher habitat, creating a massive new threat
to this already highly imperiled species. But although APHIS has now
halted new releases of the beetle, it has made no commitment to mitigate
for the ongoing devastating impacts of its earlier actions. Regrettably,
to date, the FWS has signed off on that course of conduct. Accordingly,
we have sent a detailed notice to APHIS, FWS, and other federal officials that
merely walking away from the unfolding disaster for which APHIS is directly
responsible contravenes various provisions of the Endangered
Species Act, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act. A copy of
the notice can be found here. A copy of CBD’s press release
concerning the notice can be found here.